Colour Me Red 2017 Mix

[dcp10200]

I was watchin Mix Critique Monday over on Pete Woj's youtube channel Mix Better Now and the first mix he played and critiqued was this track, after that I ended up getting inspired to revisit my mix in my new workflow using a mix reference, in the end I think this is a big improvment over my original versions and just a better mix in general. Oddly enough I chose No One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age as the reference for the mix, trying to emulate that punchy drum and bass sound and Desert Rock grit with the Rock and Roll sound of the acoustics, electrics and vocals.

So, what do you guys think?

Cheers,
Doug

Update: New master with less mid heavy bass and some other tweaks

Update 2: Final Mix and master, I took the octaver off the bass and added more mids to it.

[Roy]

[Edit: I wrote my initial critique when I was in a bad mood so I think I was overly harsh and took it out on the song. Apologies]
New day, new listen:
I still feel like the mix is fairly harsh. I wish it had some more breathing room.

I hear the QotSA influence and it's a cool direction to take the song. Bass and drums sound cool. No real level issues. Maybe the acoustics are a little loud. The high end of the bass may creep into the midrange of the rest of the instruments too much. There's plenty going on in that range and I think the bass could have more of it's own space a little lower in the frequency spectrum. It feels like everything happens in that one midrange area. The parts all sound good but when added together it feels a bit much.

It is loud without the distortion so that works. But maybe it's too loud? The mix starts to really work when I turn the volume down lower than I usually listen at which doesn't feel right for a rock song.

Hope that makes more sense and less critical.

[dcp10200]

These are all one listen impressions.
It's very aggressive. It punches me in the face and I can't focus on the song so much.
Frequency wise it's ok. Highs to lows are balanced. I suppose it's midrangy.
I kinda like the bass tone. Until the outro.
But honestly this mix just throws everything at me and as a mixer I'll spend the time to focus on it but I think a casual listener would turn tail and skip to the next song.

I try to approach mixes from a casual perspective. I don't like to think in terms of dB or Hz. This mix honestly just assaults me. It's neon and strobes.

I mean no disrespect. I know you can make great mixes and you're trying to do something different with this mix but I have to be honest I can't focus on the song.

I turned it way down and still it feels loud. In a Guantanamo way.

That said, again, I mean no disrespect.

Thanks for your comments, I disagree with you pretty much entirely but that's opinions for you. The funny bit is this mix really is more "from the heart" than my other versions, while I did use a reference, I didn't exactly look at levels or anything. I set up a basic balance and worked from there adding what I though would make a Desert Rock meets Rockabilly mix, kind of inspired by DDL's hard edged sound but without as much harshness. Most people liked that mix on here and is 100X more "Guantanamo" than what I have here (it literally clips the whole way though".

Cheers,
Doug

[Roy]

I reedited my original post above. On rereading and a good night's sleep it seemed overly critical and meandering.

[Obelix]

Maybe too much bottom snare mic. Otherwise, great mix.

[dcp10200]

I reedited my original post above. On rereading and a good night's sleep it seemed overly critical and meandering.

Thanks Roy, I made a different version of my mix taking in consideration your edited post, funny thing about that first mix, it's actually fairly conservitive level wise peaking out at -1 dBFS, ust goes to show you the power of Eq balance in a mix considering it sounded as loud as my QotSA reference with half the limiting and compression. In that first mix I made the mistake of not automating the volume of the bass during the duration of the mix and having a boost at 1.5 kHz made it more guitar like, pretty much the bass was a full range instrument in my mix and dominant over all. With this mix I pulled out a bunch of that mid boost, automated the volume of the bass down during the verses and added an octaver to force the bass to occupy more of the low end of the mix. Also I made some tweaks to the drum buss and acoustic guitars.

Cheers,
Doug

[Roy]

I like the second mix. I can crank it and it sounds loud and rock and roll but not fatiguing.

I do think the bottom end gets a little blurry with the octaver. Not to waffle too much but the old bass sound might work in this new mix. In the first mix the low end was ok but the midrange of the bass was in a frequency space with everything else. It was a cool tone but it tried to compete with all the other instruments that live in that range. And since the bass can exist lower I thought it would make sense to move it's focus lower to get out of the range of the midrangy parts. I think with some of the midrange cleared out there can be room for that old top end of the bass.

Other than that the only thought I had is it could use some de-essing on the vocal. The vocals are up in this mix but in a good way. They sound big and powerful but sometimes those esses are too much. Which I think just goes back to the recording.

This mix sounds great and rocking. It's over the top but in a good way and I think it fits the spirit of the song.

[dcp10200]

Final Mix posted above

[Roy]

Yeah. Personally, I like that a lot more. The bass has a lot more personality and hold down the center. Has a lot of life in it. It supports the electric guitar more too.
Are the drums different? More room or different reverb? I like it. It feels like more than one kit is playing. Huge.

Vocals feel nice too. Also the Rhodes. I hear it but it's not over the top. It just fits into that hole in the chorus. It's got some effects but isn't gimmicky.

Sounds great to me.

[dcp10200]

Yeah. Personally, I like that a lot more. The bass has a lot more personality and hold down the center. Has a lot of life in it. It supports the electric guitar more too.
Are the drums different? More room or different reverb? I like it. It feels like more than one kit is playing. Huge.

Vocals feel nice too. Also the Rhodes. I hear it but it's not over the top. It just fits into that hole in the chorus. It's got some effects but isn't gimmicky.

Sounds great to me.

Thanks Roy, the drums are the same, I think I backed the gate on my snare top mic off abit and turned down the bottom snare abit but otherwise the only changes are the bass and vocals (added a De esser)

Cheers,
Doug